168 A NEW THEORY OF EVOLUTION. 



That the struggle for existence does not 

 tend to produce beneficial differences, 

 and that its function is to maintain, 

 by eliminating the least fit, an average 

 1 type. 



That natural selection not only fails to 

 account for the phenomena of evolution, 

 but is at variance with its facts. 

 That external conditions, although they 

 may modify to a limited extent ex- 

 pression of type, do not tend to bring 

 about specific variation. 

 Finally, that the embryo of every mammal 

 < presents in its growth the same phases 

 that appeared in the embryo of its first 

 ancestor, and therefore that the germ- 

 plasm of a mammal is not altered by 

 modifications of its corpus. 

 If these conclusions are established, it 

 follows 



That the Darwinian theory not only fails 

 to account for, but is contrary to the 

 facts of, evolution, and, according to 

 Huxley's test of a hypothesis, " it falls 

 to the ground it is worth nothing." 

 We fully recognise that our theory, even 

 if established, does not advance our know- 

 ledge of the causes of evolution or of the 

 means by which it was effected ; it professes 



